Timatollah

Friday, January 31, 2003
 
Not Just Left Turns

Big race here this weekend. The Rolex 24.

What? You didn't know there was a road track at DIS?


 
No Cars? On the Beach?

The Volusia County Council has put the idea of ending driving on the beach on their list of long-term goals to be considered. Possible time frame: By 2010. The story is here from the Daytona Beach News-Jounal.

It seems to this one that the County Council, by and large, views beach driving as beach parking. The Council, as an ensemble, seems to view the relationship between the beach and cars as one of a parking lot, at best, with the driving part simply a nuisance, largely partaken by heathens and louts from landlocked counties. I'm not sure if they understand the simple pleasure of driving on the beach for the simple pleasure of driving on the beach.

My guess also is that if Gigantic Investment Corporation ("Building Tomorrow's Condos Today") told them, "Sure, get rid of the beach driving, and we'll build on sites where all the mom and pop beach motels are," the Council would say, "How soon?" "Follow the money," and, "Watch your wallet," are phrases to keep in mind regarding most anything the County Council does.

The beach is an incredible resource that has to be protected and preserved: I don't have any doubts about that. But, like many human situations with well-established contexts, there's rarely a one-size-fits-all solution. I would miss being able to drive on the beach were the opportunity taken away from me.


Thursday, January 30, 2003
 
The New Europe

CNN has this report on how the leaders of Britain, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Denmark, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic are backing the U.S. in the confrontation with Iraq. The jointly-signed article correctly identifies Iraq as the intransigent party that must comply with international demands.

Noted absent friends: France. Germany.


 
Waiting on Maglev

Volusia County has a high-tech secret: American Maglev Technology's manufacturing and testing facility in Edgewater. You'd think that with something as slick and potentially spiffy as magnetic levitation technology for rapid transit and people moving, folks would be hyping the activity, using it to play up Volusia County's potential as a place for research and technological growth.

On the other hand, with results like these, reported in today's Orlando Sentinel, maybe there's a pretty good reason very few around here talk about it. Maybe it's just another local boondoggle.

I first became aware of the local maglev connection through an a brief article on American Maglev in IEEE Spectrum, an article that's not online right now. On the other hand, at a local IEEE meeting we once heard about what sometimes passes for high tech locally: the new Advanced Technology Center (aka the Vo Tech school).


Sunday, January 26, 2003
 
More on The Loop

In this post, Mark (Flablog) Lane points all to Save the Loop, a new organization here in Volusia County devoted to preserving a collection of roads known as The Loop. Lane has written previously about this (here and here and here), and I've put some loop photos available for perusal here.

This is not an endorsement of the organization. Yet. But there's every reason to listen to what these folks are saying and to consider seriously their point of view.


 
American Splendor

The ever watchful Shattered Buddha / Dragonleg notes (here) that a film about left-wing Cleveland comic book artist/writer Harvey Pekar took a best film award at the Sundance Film Festival.

Anyone who ever saw Pekar on Letterman -- or who read Pekar's piece about being on Letterman -- knows that Pekar is a curmudgeon who does nothing at all to disprove the notion that there's no room for fun on the left. I know nothing about the film, so I have no idea how Pekar comes across in it. If it's something he's responsible for, probably smarmy and self-righteous; if it's something someone else produced, he probably comes across as someone who doesn't know what a self-righteous jerk he seems to be.

I wonder if this makes the copies of American Slendor, Pekar's comic book, that are buried somewhere in the comic book box worth more. Hello? E-bay?

Addendum: What I hope is my better nature is telling me I ought to add that I haven't paid any attention to Pekar's work since the early 1990s, so my characterization of him above is based on that, not current knowledge. People change sometimes.


Saturday, January 25, 2003
 
Too Geeky?

Is using Mathematica to do the interpolation to figure out how much water and oats and salt to use when making three servings of oatmeal (aka "oats") too geeky? See, the instructions on the package (Publix brand) only cover one, two, and six servings, and the relationship is not linear (proportional).

Sometimes, it's okay to use an elephant gun to kill a fly.

And can one ever really be too geeky?


 
Dave Barry

Live! From Blog*Spot!! It's Dave Barry!!!

But go back and read the old stuff, too.


 
Not Snow

Okay, so it's been cold. Rather cold in places it's very unfrequently that cold. Places like here in beautiful Daytona Beach.

But that stuff that some people claim they saw in the air yesterday was not snow. An Embry-Riddle professor of meteorology uses the term "snow like" in this story about the cold weather from the Daytona Beach News-Journal. Meanwhile, AccuWeather was calling it "ocean-effect snow": You know, like the "lake-effect snow" the weatherdrones on The Weather Channel go on about (and that people in upstate New York and the like know all about).

Anyway, I didn't see any snow or anything snow like, and I don't know anyone who actually did. (Thbbbpt!) Sounds more like a cold-induced mass hallucination to me.


 
Darwin Award Nominee

WaPo (internet) frontpage headline: "Dog Assault Ends Man's Life". Teaser: " Virginia man accidently shoots himself while beating his wife's Shar-Pei.". Story: Here.


Thursday, January 23, 2003
 
Venezuela

No time to blog. Read Lane.


Wednesday, January 22, 2003
 
Rights Deferred

The Metro Council of Nashville and Davidson County (Tennessee) has delayed its third and final consideration of an ordinance that would add gay and disabled people as folks not to be discriminated against in matters of employment and housing. My read of the Tennessean article (article here) left me unclear as to whether this was a move that will increase likelihood of the bill's final passage or whether it means that whatever gets passed will be so watered down as to be meaningless.


Monday, January 20, 2003
 
Martin Luther King: I Have a Dream
This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
Read the whole speech here.


 
Likely Broken Blog

I pulled one of those "forgot the closing quotation marks" around a URL the other day when I added the (unpulished until now) addendum to the PETA/leather post. I apologize for the weirdness. The added text was supposed to end, "Should we plan for vegan bikers at Bike Week. (Or should I use this page for Bike Week links?)


Saturday, January 18, 2003
 
Empty Post

Please ignore.


Friday, January 17, 2003
 
Doug & Bruce's Excellent US-1 Adventure

Palm Beach Post writer Douglas Kalajian and photographer Bruce Bennett recently put together a series on what locally used to be called the Dixie Highway. New Englanders would know it as the Post Road. That's right, I'm talking US 1.

This link takes you to an index of the nice photos and enjoyable articles.


 
Save the Naughas!

It was eventual -- after all, there are four billion people on this rock -- that PETA would someday take on people "into leather". The result is shown below.



The story (here) is from Cybercast News Service (whatever that is). (Link via Instapundit.)

Addendum: Does this mean that we can expect PETA to take on bikers and local bike leather vendors? Should we plan for vegan bikers at

10:25 PM
Thursday, January 16, 2003
 
Instant Shuttle Launch Photos

Submitted for your approval. Click for larger.



 
Saddam: "Just Doing Research"

This just in from BBspot.
Baghdad - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein today told investigators he is not developing nuclear or biological weapons, but instead has been doing research for a book on weapons of mass destruction he hopes to see published next year.

Hussein, whose palaces were recently searched by the United Nations as part of an ongoing investigation, said he always been strongly opposed to such weapons, and believes he was a victim of weapons of mass destruction during his childhood.
Read the whole article here.


 
Shuttle Launch Today

Shuttle Columbia has a scheduled launch time. Details here.


 
Six Degrees of Frank Zappa

Mark Lane points out (here) that former Florida (U.S.) senator Paula Hawkins had her voice sampled by Mr. Frank Zappa for a piece, Porn Wars, on the Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention record.
Weird Sunshine State Political Trivia -- Hawkins' voice was sampled in the Frank Zappa song "Porn Wars" ( Frank Zappa Meets The Mothers Of Prevention, 1985) repeating the phrase "fire and chains and other objectionable tools of gratification in some twisted minds."




 
Yahoos to Protest Equal Rights

Wacko Kansas minister Fred Phelps and his hateful crew are headed to Nashville to protest Metro Nashville's consideration of law protecting gay and lesbian citizens from unmotivated discrimination in employment, housing, etc. Story here from the (Nashville) Tennessean.


Tuesday, January 14, 2003
 
Rock Notes

Geez, what is up with Pete Townsend? The latest: He's been released from jail. The Who having been faves of mine from way back (say, ninth grade), I'm hoping this is all as Townsend describes. But what he's saying, like so many things he's said previously regarding sexuality and sexually-related things -- you know, his "I know what it feels like to be a woman, because I have been one" followed years later by "just kidding" -- just comes across like bullshit.

Second, about Maurice Gibb and the Bee Gees. The Bee Gees were a great band long before they hit huge with the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. Songs like "I Started a Joke" and "Lonely Days and Lonely Nights" put then on this one's radar screen around the same time as, say, the Who. They were headliners in the second arena rock show I ever saw: At the Municipal Auditorium in Nashville in the summer of 1971 (I think. First rock show was Credence at Cobo Hall earlier that same summer. Eat your heart out Mr. Instapundit). I'm sorry to hear of another of the brothers Gibb passing away.


 
Turning on the Lighthouse

The lamp in the lighthouse at the Ponce de Leon Inlet here on the Volusia County beachside is being restored and should be shining again by this coming summer. Story with photos here (including a good lighthouse shot) from the Daytona Beach News-Journal. There's also this photo by N-J photographer Jim Tiller that was on the N-J's web site front page this morning, but isn't featured in the article.


 
Salad in a Bag

Today's New York Times has this story on one of the more useful conveniences of modern life in the USA.


Monday, January 13, 2003
 
QotD

"I did not anticipate this, but a lot of things have happened over the last three years that could not be anticipated and you have to deal with the realities of the situation." -- Steve Case, on resigning as chair of AOL Time-Warner. From this article in The Washington Post.


 
The Earth, As Seen From The Moon

Among the crew onboard Thursday's Space Shuttle launch (STS-107, shuttle Columbia) will be Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon. Among his gear will be this image of the Earth, as seen from the moon, that was drawn in the early 1940 by then 14-year-old Petr Ginz. Ginz perished in the Holocaust.

A press release from Yad Vashem, the Israeli agency responsible for Holocaust remembrance, is here. (Link from Instapundit.)


Sunday, January 12, 2003
 
Vlogging, Shvlogging

Word on the blog street is that Vlogging is the next thing. Just what the world needs: Childhood fantasies of being the teevee newsman realized.

My fantasy is to be on Letterman doing a stupid pet trick with our dog. Ladies and gentlemen, for your entertainment and edification, here's (455kb, .mpg format) Ursa the chocolate lab, catching a piece of ice and then eating it. Or double click the image below.






Saturday, January 11, 2003
 
Two Uncles

Two of my uncles are being buried in the next two days.

My Uncle Dick was a native of Chicago. I don't know where he met my dad's sister Ruth, who was a native of east Tennessee, like my dad, but I know that they were terribly in love. They never had any kids, only each other.

He was of German descent, but he was a marksman in the US Army in the European theater during WWII (though I'm not exactly sure where). His medals were one of the few things he still had when he left this world.

Ruth died oh, I guess, about ten or more years ago. He took care of her the best he could in her final days. They had moved to south Florida after both of them retired. I don't recall what he did, but my Aunt Ruth was a telephone operator back in the day when telephone operators were a part of everyday life. They lived in Chicago for their married life (as far as I know). I visited them there twice when I ws a kid, and I have fond memories of sleeping on the back porch of their co-op apartment (quad-plex) in the middle of summer. It meant a lot to me to be able to visit the big city.

Another of my dad's and Ruth's sisters lived near Ruth and Dick in West Palm Beach, and both she (my late Aunt Lee) and Dick ended up living in an assisted living place in Lake Worth. Lee passed away almost two years ago, just a little while after my mom. (My dad's been gone for almost thirty years.)

I saw Dick last August. He was sitting alone, asleep, in a wheelchair, in his room at the assisted living place when I got there. He never really knew who I was the whole time I was there. He was happy to see me, but he was also back asleep in no time. I took that opportunity to say my goodbyes, and I'm glad I did.

Dick passed away on 29 December: two weeks ago. Somehow, the funeral home contacted a nephew of his on his side of the family, and the nephew decided he wanted to come to the funeral, but couldn't come until this coming Monday. So, that's when they scheduled the funeral for. This nephew didn't really know my uncle, didn't know my Aunt Ruth at all, didn't know how much my cousin Tom's wife Gloria Sue had done to take care of Dick in the last few years (mainly long distance from Chattanooga). He didn't know Dick at all, but still he wanted to come to the funeral, so they've kept Dick's body in waiting for two weeks so this person who wasn't really part of Dick's life could come to the funeral. Sorry, but that really irritates me.

My Uncle Harold was my mom's sister's husband. My mom and her sibblings were all born and reared on Sand Mountain, in northeast Alabama, and that's where Uncle Harold lived with my aunt, Annie Ruth, I guess for his whole life. I'm ashamed to say I don't know much about him either. I was one of those who left my home and family in many ways at a fairly early age, and I never really repaired all the broken ties.

Still, I remember visiting them when visiting my grandmother (Mama Daniel) who lived on Sand Mountain her entire life. My Uncle Harold was a tall handsome man with a wonderful smile for everyone. He and Annie have hosted the annual family reunion for my mom's family since I can remember, even though I hadn't attended until recently after my mom passed away.

Harold's been seriously ill for the past month or so, and his kids, particularly my cousin Bill, have had their hands full. He and Annie were very close, too, and I wonder how she will live without him. I don't want to imagine those kinds of feelings.

When my mom died, everyone was so good to come from so far away, so I feel really awful about not being able to go to Harold's funeral (tomorrow) or Dick's funeral (Monday). Even having gotten away from family and from home town, I've never gotten comfortable to being so far away when someone who matters leaves us.

I'll hush now. I don't usually use this space for personal ramblings. But these gentlemen meant something to me, and I don't think I'm expressing that adequately at all.


 
The Latest in Blogger Weirdness

Yeah yeah. I said about a month ago I might drop Blogger. But then, things seems peachy.

Until I checked the log tonight and found hits to this weirdness. It's like my blog domain name has been invaded by a sorority girl or something.

He'p me, somebody!


Friday, January 10, 2003
 
Tell Me Something I Don't Know

Here's a headline from today's (Nashville) Tennessean: "Gay rights proposal angers Baptists". Story here.



Thursday, January 09, 2003
 
Krispy Kreme vs. Cracker Barrel

Doug Malan (here -- link via Instapundit) ponders why Krispy Kreme is such a hit outside the south. In the process he compares Krispy Kreme with Cracker Barrel:
But that's the amazing thing about Newington, and now Milford, which opened the second Krispy Kreme in the state in November.

People are planning their days around buying these doughnuts. It has become a crusade for a simple ring of dough, and it's fascinating and strange to see.

Cracker Barrel executives must be envious. Collard greens and fried bologna aren't garnering that kind of attention, either. Is anyone out there clamoring for red eye gravy with grits and biscuits for breakfast?

No, not around here.
Mmmm. Krispy Kremes. A vehicle for delivery of warm fat and sugar to the human soul. (Like Malan, I grew up with 'em.)


Wednesday, January 08, 2003
 
Quick Democratic Presidential Scorecard

Edwards: Maybe.

Graham: Possibly.

Dean: Intriguing.

Gephardt: I doubt it.

Kerry: Are you kidding? Like folks are gonna vote for someone resembling "I am... Death... I am... the Grim Reaper..." from The Meaning of Life.

Hart: As much of a nooge as Kerry. Smart but unelectable.

Dean vs. Graham would be a good contest of ideas. Edwards is a blank slate.

Addendum (9 JAN 03): Liberman is supposedly in. I don't think he'll take, but I've been wrong before about such.


 
Nashville on Track for Anti-Discrimination Legislation

The Tennessean (formerly, the Nashville Tennessean) is reporting (here) that the (Nashville/Davidson) Metro Council (consolidated city/county government there) is considering a law to protect gay and lesbian citizens from discrimination in housing, employment, etc. Like Orlando recently passed.

Followers of the Orlando debate will recognize similar roles being played by different actors in the Nashville debate. The law's already passed two of three required readings. I'd expect the usual unnecessary and prejudiced loudness by the opposition followed by third passage.

Prediction: Memphis will follow suit in about twenty years.


Monday, January 06, 2003
 
Gangs of New York

Apologies to all, but I'm not going to take the time, just now at least, to write a full-blown review -- or even a pretend review -- of Gangs of New York. I've tried twice previously: Once Blogger ate my post, and the other time I just screwed up.

Anyway, it's a picture of enormous narrative scope with some fine performances. Yes, Daniel Day-Lewis steals the show, and both Leo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz are good. (I can't figure out if Leo is really good or just gets cast in roles where he might be good but you wouldn't be able to tell if he wasn't.) But the star of the film is Scorsese, first for having the gumption to imagine such a project, and second for pulling it off.

Flawed? Possibly. But, again, it is the narrative scope -- telling a ture story of America and its roots in violence, particularly a federal government willing to use violence against its own citizens if necessary -- that makes this film great.


 
No Salt

Tampa's water desalination plant should go online soon, making it the first municipality to use such on anything but an emergency basis. Link here from the Tampa Tribune.

Thanks to Shattered Buddha for pointing (here) to this story in the (Ft. Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel and getting the ball rolling.


Thursday, January 02, 2003
 
But Will They Name Her "Heather"?

Andrew Sullivan, back from his post fund-raising vacation (Notes to self: (1) Never go on vacation after folks pledge to give me $80K. (2) Raise $80K), points to this piece in the Washington Post regarding a first-of-the-new-year baby that's got two moms.

It's a shame the parents had to move from Virginia to Maryland just to legally grow their family. Good luck to 'em all.


Wednesday, January 01, 2003
 
Florida Crackers

Recently, when returning from a trip to beaches on the Florida panhandle (an entirely separate story), we had opportunity to stop for a moment in Perry at the Florida Cracker Homestead interperative site. Unfortunately, we couldn't really check it out. (We had just stopped there to let the dog get out of the car for a moment, and we wanted to be on our way, 'cause we had done a bunch of sightseeing along the US-98 route already that day.)

Since then I've been wondering about this whole "cracker" thing. I finally got around to doing a little Googling on the ""Florida cracker" phrase. This seems to be one of the more knowledgable and balanced pages discussing the origins of the term and the history of the peoples to which it applied. (It seems that the Cracker identity is mixed up, for some people, with the Sons of the Confederacy type flirting-with-racism nonsense.)